[Jubilee Party leader, president Uhuru Kenyatta addresses the press over failed primaries, at State House Nairobi, April 22, 2017. Photo/PSCU]
Jubilee Party leader, president Uhuru Kenyatta has come out to speak, over the failed primaries, experienced Friday 21, April 2017, in 21 counties.
He addressed the press at State House, Nairobi, accompanied by his deputy William Ruto and Jubilee Party secretary general Raphael Tuju.
Below is his statement:
''Yesterday was unprecedented for the Jubilee Party. While the party was prepared for a normal Party Primary, we were confronted by a full scale general election in terms of the sheer massive turnout we all witnessed.
To the millions of party faithful who turned out to vote, and to the thousands of party aspirants who turned out to compete for party tickets, we unreservedly apologise for our under-preparedness for the magnitude of the nominations exercise.
The Jubilee Party is committed to free, fair, transparent and credible nominations, which as we have repeatedly stated, must reflect the will of the people.
Because of this commitment, we also took another unprecedented and difficult decision to cancel the entire nominations exercise, because doing anything to the contrary may have resulted in a subversion of the democratic will of the people.
Even in places like Laikipia, West Pokot, Tharaka Nithi, Nyandarua and Taita Taveta, where voting had largely been completed with the support and cooperation of aspirants, we also took the decision to cancel the nominations.
The Party leadership and the National Elections Board are now remapping the entire process to address all the shortcomings we experienced. A detailed revised primaries timetable will be issued by the party headquarters today, in accordance with the IEBC timelines.
I assure you personally that, as we move forward, we will learn from our mistakes, and have taken corrective measures to ensure that they are not repeated.
I urge all party members to keep the faith. We assure you that the Jubilee Party will deliver on its promise for a transparent, fair, and credible Primary.
Thank you.''